A typical semiconductor package includes a semiconductor die encapsulated in an insulating mold compound with a leadframe structure that provides external electrical connections for individual devices or integrated circuits formed in the semiconductor die. The leadframe structure typically includes a central paddle surrounded by leads. The semiconductor die typically is mounted on the paddle and die pads on the semiconductor die are electrically connected to respective ones of the leads.
In many cases, thin bond wires are used to electrically connect the die pads on the semiconductor die to the leads. Bond wire connections, however, are characterized by relatively low current carrying capacity, high resistance, and high inductance, making them unsuitable for high power semiconductor applications, such as power switching or power handling, which require electrical connections between the die pads and the package leads that are characterized by high current carrying capacity, low resistance, and/or low inductance. For these reasons, efforts have been made to use electrically conductive ribbon or pre-formed clips composed of copper, copper alloy, or aluminum instead of bond wires for high power electrical connections within semiconductor packages.
Although electrically conductive ribbons and clips address the needs of increasing current carrying capacity and reducing resistance and inductance compared with bond wires, further optimizations of semiconductor package performance for high power semiconductor applications are possible.